Pickering Questions Remain

As Newscenter 11 reported earlier this week, Cong. Chip Pickering is considering a $1 million a year lobbyist job. We also learned Friday that Pickering has postponed making his final decision until Monday. He had been expected to reveal it Friday.

The underlying reason for Pickering's possible resignation from congress is money; $1 million a year as a lobbyist as opposed to $155,000 as a congressman.

To the man on the street, $155,000 may sound like a great deal of money. But republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour, who spent a lot of time in Washington said it really isn't.

"The problem for most people in Congress is they live in two places. They don't just have a place in Washington," Barbour said. "They have a home and they spend lots and lots of time at home, especially members of the house who have to run every two years. And someone who makes that kind of money and has to have a house in Washington and a place in Mississippi and is going back and forth all the time, it's very hard to save anything if you've got five children. I can't imagine what it's like."

Newscenter 11 has also learned Pickering plans to sell his house in Washington, buy a small farm in Madison County and move the family back to Mississippi.

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